While I'd normally post this on my tech blog I figured it was too entertaining to not share with all my favourite tea-time readers. A while ago I was running some software called The Phonebot on my home server that answered my landline and acted as my answer-machine. The Phonebot also had the option to play the "telezapper" beep whenever it picked up to stop telesales people from calling me (it sounds like an number unobtainable tone and causes their auto-dialing systems to hang up). Having run it for about a year it seems to have made a difference - but then again it could have been the advent of the dont-not-call list - I'm not completely sure.
However I just read about a product, or idea called "Telecrapper" that answers the phone and when a telesales call is detected engages in a phony (pun intended) conversation with them. Having worked at a company that developed voice based applications I find this particularly amusing - even if this is just a hoax (listen to the sample conversation and judge for yourself) I find it entirely plausible and yes, a worthwhile pursuit.
It makes me wonder, could Telecrapper one day pass the Turing test? Could indeed the length of time a system can successfully engage a telesales caller be the new benchmark of artificial intelligence? After all in a society obsessed with consumerism and phones, shouldn't the real definition of intelligence be whether an entity can pass in society as a legitimate phone wielding consumer?
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